‘The members have spoken.’ Why workers at Mack Trucks are on strike

Union workers at Mack Trucks’ Lower Macungie Township plant went on strike Monday morning after voting down a tentative five-year contract.

United Auto Workers Local 677, and locals representing four other Mack plants, said no to the offer with 73% of the vote on Sunday. The strike affects 3,900 workers, including 2,300 at Mack’s Lehigh Valley Operations plant.

“The members have spoken, and as the highest authority in our union, they have our final word,” the UAW said in a letter to members posted Sunday night. Issues include wage increases, work schedules, job safety, job security and benefits.

Workers walked out of the plants at 7 a.m. and immediately set up picket lines.

Attempts to reach Lehigh Valley UAW leaders were unsuccessful; a message was left at Local 677 headquarters in Allentown.

Mack President Stephen Roy said he “was surprised and disappointed” by the strike and that it was “unnecessary.”

“We clearly demonstrated our commitment to good faith bargaining by arriving at a tentative agreement that was endorsed by both the International UAW and the UAW Mack Truck Council,” Roy said.

“The UAW called our tentative agreement ‘a record contract for the Heavy Truck industry,’ and we trust that other stakeholders also appreciate that our market, business, and competitive set are very different from those of the passenger car makers,” he said.

Roy added that Mack is still committed to collective bargaining and is looking forward to returning to negotiations.

UAW President Shawn Fain said in the members’ letter that workers “are mobilizing to demand their fair share.”

“The union remains committed to exploring all options for reaching an agreement, but we clearly are not there yet,” he said.

The tentative agreement included a 10% general wage increase in year one for all employees, a compounded increase of about 20% to general wages over five years and a guarantee of no increases in health insurance premiums through the term of the contract.

Other highlights included an 8.5-hour workday with a paid lunch to help step up production, a potential down week during holiday weeks, alternate shift schedules, and scheduled overtime language for skilled trades to retain work and prevent outsourcing.

UAW members voted in September to authorize a strike after the former contract ran out on Oct. 1. The vote was 98% in favor.

Besides Mack’s Lehigh Valley operations, the UAW is meeting with Mack at plants in Middletown, Dauphin County; Baltimore and Hagerstown, Maryland; and Jacksonville, Florida.

The Lehigh Valley Operations plant employs 2,700. The 1 million-square-foot facility assembles all of Mack’s Class 8 vehicles — including Anthem, Pinnacle, Granite, TerraPro and LR models.

Mack said it has invested more than $73 million in improvements in the Lehigh Valley since the last contract was ratified in 2019, including insourcing chassis assembly in 2020.

Mack workers last struck in October 2019 for two weeks. The company and the UAW reached an agreement on a four-year labor deal that protected production in Lower Macungie and maintained health care premiums for four years.

This story will be updated.

Source: Berkshire mont